Abstract
THE revised edition of Prof. SouthalPs text-book of geometrical optics, in addition to a number of new problems scattered throughout the book, contains an important new chapter at the end of the volume. The historical notes dealing with the rectilinear propagation of light, and optics in the seventeenth century are of considerable interest. It is usually stated that Newton was the first to distinguish seven colours in the prismatic spectrum, but Maurolycus (1575) in the explanation which he gave of the circular arc of the rainbow directs attention to the four principal colours, together with three other colours which he regarded as transitions. Reflection prisms are discussed at some length, and new and approved schemes of optical calculation, partly due to Mr. T. Smith, are described. A word of praise must be given to the diagrams.
Mirrors, Prisms, and Lenses: a Text-book of Geometrical Optics.
Prof.
James P. C.
Southall
By. Enlarged and revised edition. Pp. xx + 657. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1923.)
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Mirrors, Prisms, and Lenses: a Text-book of Geometrical Optics. Nature 112, 685 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112685d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112685d0